How to Format and Ready Your Book for The Kindle Platform

Thanks to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform, writers – both novice and expert – have many opportunities to publish their content.

Rather than going from one publishing house to another, the Kindle platform lets writers sell their work through the store.

Of course, the key to success relies on proper formatting.

If your Kindle e-book isn’t properly formatted, you’re sure to have readers leaving negative reviews.

The problem is that formatting issues could easily find their way into the content – this is especially true if you’re using a Word document.

What you notice in the Word document isn’t typically what’s seen when the book is uploaded to the system.

Still, there is a multitude of “invisible” formatting steps you can take that ensure the e-book is easy for Kindle users to read.

What are some of the important tips to properly format your e-book for the Kindle?

Get Rid of the Headers and Footers

While Word documents and other word processors allow for headers and footers for e-books, the same is not true for the Kindle format.

Therefore, you need to eliminate them before you upload your document.

If you fail to do this, you may get lucky, and the device will automatically get rid of them for you.

If not, you could see an array of formatting problems in the e-book. 

Just turn them and the page numbering off altogether, and you won’t have any issues.

Add a Clickable TOC

If your book is exceptionally long and not a work of fiction, your readers will be very appreciative of a clickable table of contents that will allow them to find what they need quickly without wading through the entire book.

Keep in mind that Kindle devices such as the Kindle Fire are touchscreens.

When it comes to the TOC, you don’t want to have page numbers or avoid restricting entry into chapters.

Kindle e-book pages are fluid, changing as of the font size a person uses and the device’s screen size.

If you limit entries to chapters, it could result in a cluttered TOC.

Bookmark the First Page and TOC

The reality is that the Kindle – be it the reader or app – lets readers jump back to the cover, TOC, and first page.

This is what your e-book notes as being bookmarks.

When your book is converted for publication on the KDP platform, it will include a cover bookmark.

Be sure to include a TOC and First Chapter bookmark (labeling them yourself).

This allows the system to understand where readers should be sent back to when going through the e-book.

Use Your Word Processor’s Formatting Styles

Most of today’s word processors, such as Open Office and Microsoft Word, let users control how the document looks with styles.

If you’re not using them yet, you should.

Rather than manually adjusting the font sizes, styles, and more, styles let you implement changes all at once within the document.

Chapter titles need to be labeled at “Heading 1.”  The publishing system will identify this text as being a new chapter.

Readers can then jump through each chapter of the e-book.

You can also use the automatic TOC tools of your word processor as well to help you.

Use Page Breaks for Each Chapter

Be sure that each chapter starts on a new page, which gives readers a clear distinction that it’s a new chapter.

You can do this with the style settings.

Go back to the “Heading 1” and choose “add a page break before.”

The document will update itself automatically, adding in a page break at each new chapter title.

Don’t Use Any “Special” Formatting

The idea behind the Kindle e-book format is to keep things simple.

This will help in giving users a good experience on an array of devices.

Avoid using any of the following:

• Special characters
• Special fonts
• Tabs
• Bullets
• Tables

Go with the basics such as indents, underlines, bold and italics.

Proofread, Proofread and Proofread Some More

Despite following all the formatting tips in your e-book, mistakes can still happen in the conversion process.

Amazon offers publishers a preview tool to look over the converted e-book before it is published.

A downloadable copy is also available for you to download to your Kindle app or device.

Be sure to look over the whole e-book, looking for odd formatting.

Click all the links in the TOC and ensure they transfer the reader to the right areas.

Ensure the navigation tools jump you to the right sections of the e-book.

If there were issues, be sure to fix them in the main document and re-upload the saved version to the KDP system.

Look over the file again. Continue doing this process until there are no more errors.

Once you’ve gotten the bugs taken care of, you can publish the e-book for others to read and enjoy.

By implementing the seven tips above, you’ll develop an e-book that works like Kindle owners want it to work.

They can focus on the words of your e-book instead of the formatting issues.

By putting in the time and effort, your book will look just as professional as those that are released from a big-name publishing house.

Kindle Books Readable on Any Device Regardless of Manufacturer

One of the biggest worldwide search engines is Amazon, with its traffic getting bigger and bigger every month.

Why is that?

More people have chosen to purchase their digital books (e-books) through Amazon’s Kindle.

Want to know why?

Of course, you do – that’s why you’re reading this.

You need some incentive to change what you’ve been doing with the information you have in hand.

This article is also a case study of a book published on Kindle and the results that were seen from it.

One of the first things people assume about Kindle is that nobody reads it.

That’s not true.

There’s a misconception floating around that gives this line of thought some credence.

Books published using with Kindle platform are only available to those individuals who own a Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD and others.

It’s a misconception that many assume to be accurate.

After all, who wouldn’t think that Kindle books are only for Kindle Fire and what not?

The great thing is that even if a book is published on the Kindle platform, it’s accessible from any device.

For example, if you love Apple products (Google ones too), you’ll be glad to know that you can actually read Kindle books from your preferred Apple or Google device.

However, if you don’t realize this, you may be wondering why you should lock yourself into one platform as an author if a minute number of people are going to read it.

Of course, one has to wonder if there is a partnership between Kindle and Apple.

What you’ll quickly find out is that digital downloads are available for any Apple device, which allows anyone to find a digital book in the KDP store and download it to their device or smartphone.

Thus, a person who uses a MacBook can download the Kindle Reader to their device and read any book available.

Simply put, if you want to read an e-book from Amazon, there are no limitations to doing so.

You can read them through the PC, an Android device, or an Apple device.

What does that mean for you as an author?

It means that publishing your book through the Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing platform means anyone has an opportunity to buy it and read it on any device they want.

You could earn good money this way.

If you love to write, why not write to satisfy yourself (and your bank account) while giving another person or two the information they need or some enjoyment in their life.

And, if you don’t like to write, you can always hire a person to ghostwrite it for you.

There are all kinds of places for you to go for this option.

Kindle and E-Reader Make It Easier Than Ever to Get Noticed

If you have been looking at digitized published works of art, you may have seen some major changes going on.

The changes have allowed for a plethora of publishing possibilities such as the self-publishing option that affords new authors the chance to publish their books via Kindle.

Why You Should Publish Your Book On Kindle?

Copious numbers of e-books are downloaded each year by Kindle users – that should give you an inclination of just how big the Kindle market is.

The Kindle device can be seen in various retail stores too such as Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, etc.

This means more consumers can buy the device if they want.

The Kindle device doesn’t cost much at all anymore.

Usually, around Christmas, Amazon and other retailers will mark it down; certain that thousands will buy it and download new books on Christmas morning and for months to come.

No doubt that fans of the Kindle e-book are sure to grow at a fast pace.

Of course, if the idea of owning one more technological gadget puts you off, you’ll be glad to know that you don’t even need a Kindle to read books that have been published with Kindle Publishing.

Any of these e-books can be downloaded to any device – Android, Apple, computer, etc.

These are devices that anybody owns – even kids.

This means the chances of people buying your book in the Kindle store are much higher.

So, if you write, you can publish your work without the headache of finding an agent or publishing firm.

Amazon provides all writers an opportunity to publish their work without dealing with the trials and tribulations authors of the past had to contend with.

There are close to a million books in the store, which means you can make it a million and one with your own novel, how-to guide, or whatever.

Best of all, you can publish it for free.

Amazon gives you all the tools you need to publish your e-book.

They will even help to connect with customers who have credit cards.

Kindle is an opportunity that any prospective author should take advantage of.

Stop dealing with the agents and publishing firms, and focus more on writing and publishing.

You don’t have to be worried about being turned down. If you have a book, you can get it published.

One of the most successful Kindle publishers is Amazon Hocking, who had been rejected numerous times by publishing companies.

Despite repeated rejections, she persevered and used the Kindle Publishing platform to publish her book.

Today, she’s sold over a million books and has a large fan base.

She wouldn’t have all that if she decided to give up after her rejections.

And, you shouldn’t either!

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